Isaiah 32; Isaiah 33; Colossians 1

Isaiah 32

1 Indeed, a king will reign righteously, and rulers will rule justly.

2 Each will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the rain, like streams of water in a dry land and the shade of a massive rock in an arid land.

3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen.

4 The reckless mind will gain knowledge, and the stammering tongue will speak clearly and fluently.

5 A fool will no longer be called a noble, nor a scoundrel said to be important.

6 For a fool speaks foolishness and his mind plots iniquity. He lives in a godless way and speaks falsely about the Lord. He leaves the hungry empty and deprives the thirsty of drink.

7 The scoundrel's weapons are destructive; he hatches plots to destroy the needy with lies, and by charging the poor during a judgment.

8 But a noble person plans noble things; he stands up for noble causes.

9 Stand up, you complacent women; listen to me. Pay attention to what I say, you overconfident daughters.

10 In a little more than a year you overconfident ones will shudder, for the vintage will fail and the harvest will not come.

11 Shudder, you complacent ones; tremble, you overconfident ones! Strip yourselves bare and put [sackcloth] about your waists.

12 Beat your breasts [in mourning] for the delightful fields and the fruitful vines,

13 for the ground of my people growing thorns and briers, indeed, for every joyous house in the joyful city.

14 For the palace will be forsaken, the busy city abandoned. The hill and the watchtower will become barren places forever, the joy of wild donkeys, and a pasture for flocks,

15 until the Spirit from heaven is poured out on us. Then the desert will become an orchard, and the orchard will seem like a forest.

16 Then justice will inhabit the wilderness, and righteousness will dwell in the orchard.

17 The result of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quiet confidence forever.

18 Then my people will dwell in a peaceful place, and in safe and restful dwellings.

19 But hail will level the forest, and the city will sink into the depths.

20 Happy are you who sow seed beside abundant waters, who let ox and donkey range freely.

Isaiah 33

1 Woe, you destroyer never destroyed, you traitor never betrayed! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed. When you have finished betraying, they will betray you.

2 Lord, be gracious to us! We wait for You. Be our strength every morning, and our salvation in time of trouble.

3 The peoples flee at the thunderous noise; the nations scatter when You rise in Your majesty.

4 Your spoil will be gathered as locusts are gathered; people will swarm over it like an infestation of locusts.

5 The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

6 There will be times of security for you- a storehouse of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is Zion's treasure.

7 Listen! Their warriors cry loudly in the streets; the messengers of peace weep bitterly.

8 The highways are deserted; travel has ceased. An agreement has been broken, cities despised, and human life disregarded.

9 The land mourns and withers; Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off [their] leaves.

10 "Now I will rise up," says the Lord. "Now I will lift Myself up. Now I will be exalted.

11 You will conceive chaff; you will give birth to stubble. Your breath is fire that will consume you.

12 The peoples will be burned to ashes, like thorns cut down and burned in a fire.

13 You who are far off, hear what I have done; you who are near, know My strength."

14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling seizes the ungodly: "Who among us can dwell with a consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with ever-burning flames?"

15 The one who lives righteously and speaks rightly, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears from listening to murderous plots and shuts his eyes to avoid endorsing evil-

16 he will dwell on the heights; his refuge will be the rocky fortresses, his food provided, his water assured.

17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty; you will see a vast land.

18 Your mind will meditate on the [past] terror: "Where is the accountant? Where is the tribute collector? Where is the one who spied out our defenses?"

19 You will no longer see the barbarians, a people whose speech is difficult to comprehend- who stammer in a language that is not understood.

20 Look at Zion, the city of our festival times. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful pasture, a tent that does not wander; its tent pegs will not be pulled up nor will any of its cords be loosened.

21 For there the majestic One, the Lord, will be for us, a place of rivers and broad streams, where ships that are rowed will not go, and majestic vessels will not pass.

22 For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King. He will save us.

23 Your ropes are slack; they cannot hold the base of the mast or spread out the flag. Then abundant spoil will be divided, the lame will plunder it,

24 and none there will say, "I am sick." The people who dwell there will be forgiven [their] iniquity.

Colossians 1

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, and Timothy our brother:

2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ in Colossae. Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints

5 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about [this hope] in the message of truth, the gospel

6 that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and recognized God's grace in the truth.

7 You learned this from Epaphras, our much loved fellow slave. He is a faithful minister of the Messiah on your behalf,

8 and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.

9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven't stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,

10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing [to Him], bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.

11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy

12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints' inheritance in the light.

13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves,

14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation;

16 because by Him everything was created, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities- all things have been created through Him and for Him.

17 He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together.

18 He is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything.

19 For God was pleased [to have] all His fullness dwell in Him,

20 and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross- whether things on earth or things in heaven.

21 And you were once alienated and hostile in mind because of your evil actions.

22 But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him-

23 if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith, and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. [This gospel] has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a minister of it.

24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for His body, that is, the church.

25 I have become its minister, according to God's administration that was given to me for you, to make God's message fully known,

26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to His saints.

27 God wanted to make known to those among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28 We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

29 I labor for this, striving with His strength that works powerfully in me.